EMMANUAL, GOD IS WITH US
Kay Keith Peebles 12/18/20 20.48
I began my Christian journey in 1976 when I became dissatisfied with church as usual. I did not see the reality of the Biblical testimony manifesting in those around me. Although I grew up in the church setting, I did not see the lives of people who were transformed like I had heard about in Bible stories nor did I experience it personally. Although I believed God existed, my “religious” experience was intellectual and not personal. I lived by works, and not by faith. My view of God was basically as a wrathful Judge. I began to think that the Bible was simply a book of stories and wondered if it was truly reality. At the age of 27, a hunger to know the truth caused me to begin to seek the Lord. I started by reading a daily devotional booklet, published by the church denomination I attended.
Two years later, a neighbor invited me to join an international Bible Study which required a serious commitment of time doing homework. The studies were organized into five topics requiring five years to complete. The first year I began was the study of the book of Matthew. The second year was Genesis, and then John, Minor Prophets and the fifth was the Missionary Journeys of Paul. By the time we had completed all five years we had a command of the scriptures, having studied the entire Bible.
Our assignment was to read designated Bible passages daily and answer the questions on a study sheet relating to the material. We were not fed the answers, but asked to pray and fill in each question as the scripture spoke to us. This process took up to an hour each day. We would meet once a week and bring our study sheets of questions which we had researched and answered according to the Bible text. Each group had fifteen women and when we finished our questions and answers, we assembled with the entire group of about five hundred women for a lecture on the same material. When we left, we were handed notes based on the lecture and given our new questions for the next week. This study so impacted my life I became born again in 1980. The Lord had become real and tangible to me and I had truly experienced Him answering my prayers as I slowly began to put my trust in Him.
At the end of my second year, I was invited to become a group leader. I not only had fifteen women to shepherd, I was asked to attend a leader’s meeting the day before our normal class to go over our lesson with the leadership. This required more study time because each week as we completed our lesson we did homiletics in addition. Homiletics is the art of preaching or teaching the word through outlining a chapter of scripture or the material you are studying. This required us to delve into the scripture passages more thoroughly than was required to simply answer the questions. I was a discussion leader for five years. When I stopped going to the Bible Study, I had completed seven years of Bible study repeating two of the five courses. My husband attended the same Bible study years later and they had added a sixth course making the process take six years instead of five.
After I concluded Paul’s journeys, I hungered to know the Lord like the Apostles did and I prayed to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Lord answered my prayer when a friend prayed with me a month later and the Holy Spirit filled me and gave me an unknown tongue. See 1 Corinthians 13:1 and 14:2. In His grace and mercy, the words that came out of my mouth were not unknown to my friend. She was a “completed” Jew who believed in Yeshua Hamashiach (Jesus, Messiah). She repeated the words I had spoken and they were the Hebrew language which I did not know. One word was Hillel which means greatly praised. I was praising the Lord as I spoke in my new tongue! The second word I uttered was hiel which means God lives, in Hebrew. I was saying greatly praise Him because God lives!
The presence of the Holy Spirit was not only evident in my new prayer language but He would speak to me through the scriptures magnifying them as I continued reading the Bible daily for myself. The Word became more alive than ever before and I could not get enough of the scriptures. I began to teach the Bible to others because finding Him caused me to want to share Him with others.
In the decade of the 1990’s I heard the phrase: The Old Testament is Jesus concealed. The New Testament is Jesus revealed. I do not know the author of that saying but it is so very true. During that decade Bibles had become more informative with built in study guides and teaching helps which sparked more exciting insights in His word. I bought a Bible Concordance to look up the Hebrew meanings of the Old Testament words and the Greek meaning of the New Testament words. It was then I could see Jesus in the Old Testament stories appearing to Abraham as the Angel of the Lord several times, and to Jacob when he wrestled with God. They were amazed that they had encountered the Lord and seen him yet were not killed.
“And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel [the face of God], saying, For I have seen God face to face, and my life is spared and not snatched away.” Genesis 32:30.
Moses encountered God on Mt. Sinai when he saw Him as a burning bush. The Israelites knew they could not see the face of God the Father and live. When Moses asked to see God’s glory in Exodus 33, the Lord placed him in the cleft of the rock and passed by him. He did not allow Moses to see His face but he saw His goodness after God passed by. Exodus 33:15-23. It was Jesus whom Moses met face to face with in the tent of meeting. The pre-incarnate Jesus appeared to many patriarchs in the Old Testament.
“When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the door of the tent, and the Lord would talk with Moses…And the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend…”Exodus 33:9-11.
Jesus spoke to His disciples: “You are my friends if you keep on doing the things which I command you to do. I do not call you servants (slaves) any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you My friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from My father. [I have revealed to you everything I have learned from Him].” John 15:14-15.
Since the resurrection and Pentecost the Holy Spirit can dwell inside of mankind speaking to us, leading us, guiding us and inspiring us as we fully commit to know Him more and more. The same God with whom Abraham, Isaac and Jacob walked wants a relationship with us. The same God who met with Moses face to face in the tent of meeting wants to speak with us face to face. The same God who was the Captain of the Hosts (the army of God) and led Joshua into victory wants to lead us into victory today. The same God who demonstrated His miracles through the Prophets Elijah and Elisha wants to empower us. The same God who set the one hundred twenty in the upper room on fire with great boldness at Pentecost wants to burn through us today!
We each know God to the degree that we seek Him. The Israelites did not desire to meet God face to face so they entrusted Moses to do it for them. By rejecting their call from God to come closer, they battled sin and rebellion throughout their history. Those who subjected themselves to the Lord dwelt with Him in true intimacy in both the Old and the New Testament times. Nothing has changed. If the people of God entrust their faith to man to bring them the word of God and not seek the Lord for themselves they will continue to battle sin, doubt and unbelief. Our faith in God is only as great and deep as our encounter with God personally.
When our hunger to KNOW Him causes us to press in like the woman with the issue of blood, we will not only truly find Him, our healing will come forth. Because of her affliction, according to the Jewish Law she could have been stoned to death for coming publically among the people in order to connect with Jesus. By doing so, she risked not only her reputation, she risked her very life! Instead, she was moved by faith trusting in Him and not being willing to let her encounter with God pass her by.
Either Jesus is the true Son of God or He isn’t. If He is, and the Bible is true, we should all be walking in the level of faith that moves mountains, seeing miracles daily as Jesus and His disciples did.
“Those who do wickedly against the covenant He shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who KNOW their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.” Daniel 11:32, emphasis mine.
The “church” today has become corrupted just as the Israelites were in the Old Testament. But just as God had a remnant like Daniel, Nehemiah, Elijah and others, He has a remnant today that chooses to seek His face, humble their hearts before Him and believe His word completely. It is out of this company of believers God will send forth revival and the whole earth will soon experience the Glory of God. In that process, He will separate the wheat from the tares in order to remove all corruption from within His body, because His Bride will be pure and holy as He is holy. She will not listen to the voice of anyone but her Good Shepherd. She will not follow anyone but Him and she will demonstrate His salvation, authority, healing, and power to the nations!
Just as it was in the day Jesus entered the earthly realm as a babe in a manger, He invites us to dwell with Him, Emmanuel. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob said yes. Moses, Joshua, and Daniel said yes. Elijah and Elisha said yes as did many others who have gone before us. There are many more who were never named in the Bible or in the two thousand years since then. The same question Joshua asked the Israelites as they began to enter the Promised Land remains today:
“If it is unacceptable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15.
Immanuel has come but do we truly walk with Him? Do we truly know Him and are we truly like Him? If not, we can begin today by inviting Him to come and dwell with us in our hearts and minds. He is God with us, the hope of Glory!
